A Sasquatch Outside the Portapotty

Dear reader, I know that what I’m about to tell you might sound crazy. And if you had asked me just a few short months ago whether or not I believed in Sasquatch, I would have said no. Politely, but still…eager to distance myself from all those white men in the forest looking for evidence of a rare hominid that doesn’t exist. 

And I still don’t align with that particular perspective. But my husband and I had an experience back in October that we can’t easily explain from a Western, materialist mindset. 

I was feeling sick and feverish one night as we were camped out at Sacred Circle, our retreat center project on Harstine Island. You know that feeling when dinner just isn’t sitting right on your stomach, and you toss and turn, fighting the nausea and hoping to fall asleep. Unfortunately, it escalated to the point where I knew I would never be able to rest until I got whatever it was out of my system. I asked Andrew to walk with me up to the portapotty. 

The five acres we care for are very dynamic: gullies and hills covered in mature second growth forest and lush ferns. The scars of the past are also visible nearly everywhere you look. Monstrous stumps from old growth fir and cedar still remain from when the whole island was clearcut in the early 20th century. The old logging roads are still intact, winding through the hills and draws, and we use these pathways to get from one place to another on foot or by tractor. 

The old logging road up the hill

I got out of bed, feverish and trembling, dressed, and began the long walk up the steep old road toward the portapotty. I don’t know how long I was in there, but I remember thinking, “I’m going to take as long as I need to, because I do not want to make this journey twice.”

Andrew, who was waiting so patiently outside, asked if he could leave me for just a few minutes to go get his phone. I can’t remember what I mumbled as I crouched on the plastic grate floor, but I knew I would be safe for a short while on my own. 

About a minute later—not long enough for Andrew to have completed a round trip from down below, and from the opposite direction—I heard soft, heavy footsteps. It sounded like a large man, and whoever they were, they were right outside the portapotty. 

In a millisecond, my mind provided three possibilities. It could be Andrew, although that was unlikely, and he surely would have announced himself. It could be a cougar. We do have a handful of them on the island, and we’ve seen several piles of their scat. But this…whatever it was…sounded distinctly bipedal and much heavier. My last guess was an intruder. We’ve taken heavy losses over the last six months from local thieves, and this was the possibility that scared me the most. 

Whatever it was, there was only a thin sheet of plastic between us, and I had no idea how to handle this situation. 

I could not have been more vulnerable in that moment. 

“Andrew, is that you?” I whispered.

It froze. 

We both did. 

Okay, so it’s clearly not Andrew. And a stranger probably would have run away. So that leaves only one option. It’s some kind of wild animal. A big one. 

I had a choice to make. I could either stay silent and wait for something to happen, which might result either Andrew or myself being attacked, or I could go on the offensive. 

I decided to try and scare whatever it was away. There was no time for hesitation. I began to bang on the plastic door as hard and loud as I could. 

It worked! With chilling results. 

The creature began to howl and move away fast. Faster than any animal should have been able to move. And it didn’t crash through the underbrush. It was like it flew down the hill and far away, howling as it went, though the vocalizations were definitely still coming from below the tree canopy. 

“SAM?! ARE YOU OKAY?!”

“YEAH, I’M FINE.”

“WHAT SHOULD WE DO?”

“I DON’T KNOW. BUT STAY SAFE! MAKE A LOT OF NOISE!”

I waited in silence for a short while. The nausea had settled, thankfully, but I was extremely shaken. Then I heard our bluetooth speaker at full volume, the clanging of metal on rock, and Andrew’s shouts. The cacophony grew louder. Rescue was on the way. 

I waited until I knew for sure he was right outside before I dared to open the portapotty door. I must have looked so scared! I know he did. 

We walked back to our shelter, keeping up the noise the whole way. We didn’t dare stop to look around or even talk about what had just happened until we were safely back inside…as if those thin fabric walls could ever keep out a creature of that size. Nevertheless, closing the door offered a perception of separateness from the dark, mysterious forest right outside. Like a small child, jumping in bed and pulling the covers way up added to my sense of safety. 

We exchanged stories in hushed voices. He explained how he had been at the bottom of the hill when he heard the howling and how the noise seemed much closer than the porta potty up on the hill, which was about 400 feet away. It rang through the forest and reverberated deep in his chest. I told him about the footsteps and how I had banged on the plastic door to scare the creature away. 

We asked ourselves what it could have been. Andrew suggested a deer or a cougar.

“I’m not sure about that, babe. I know how ridiculous this seems, but it sounded distinctly primate to me. Like it had a voice.” 

We made up our minds to look up recordings of animal calls once we left Sacred Circle and returned to cell service. And that’s exactly what we did. Cougar, deer, coyote, fox, and owl calls. Even wolves, which are not on the island. 

We couldn’t find a good match for what we had heard that night, but Andrew insisted it must be some kind of ordinary animal…and I guess I kind of went along with that explanation. It was just a very strange night in the forest. One more weird story in a growing collection of weirdness that seems to be piling up in my life.

I put it in the back of my mind, as I do with all my strange stories, until, as usual, something brought it back to the surface again. That something happened to be an Oregon Public Broadcasting video that appeared on YouTube less than two weeks later. We love watching interesting, educational things on YouTube, and OPB is an absolute goldmine. 

They had done a fascinating and beautiful story on Sasquatch from the perspective and knowing of Pacific Northwest Native peoples. 

This completely opened my mind and softened my heart toward these mysterious creatures. 

As a rule, when native people speak about what they know, I believe them…fully. It would be ignorant, colonial hubris not to. 

One statement from an interview with Acosia Red Elk stood out to me.

“It’s interesting to see all these 'Searching for Bigfoot' films, documentaries, docuseries where they’re literally out there looking to find Bigfoot, capture him, kill him. I don’t really know what they’re expecting to do. But they’ll never find him. Because Bigfoot is Spirit.”

If you’ve spent even 10 minutes around me, you know that I’m very comfortable talking about spirit. It’s one of my very favorite things to discuss. 

And why not? 

We live in a gravitational field…an electromagnetic field…a Higgs field. Atoms are mostly empty space. To pretend there is nothing more to reality than what we can study and understand empirically is, again, pure hubris. 

So yes, Andrew and I were willing to entertain the idea that it might have been Sasquatch. 

But the story doesn’t end there. A few weeks later, the Harstine Island community Facebook page began sharing detailed accounts of Bigfoot sightings on the island, and it turns out there have been many more over the years. This is how we came to find out that the island is a particularly active spot for these beings. 

There was even an interview in which a former police officer gave a very detailed location of where he had his first face-to-face sighting…and it’s another property on the island that we had put an offer on before buying the one where Sacred Circle currently sits. 

And if you’re not familiar with Harstine, let me tell you, it’s a fairly large island by Salish Sea standards. Over 18 square miles. 

What are the chances?

And what are the chances that just a few days ago on a family walk to the park we’d find a Sasquatch ornament hanging from a tree? Or that my son would show up to his homeschool co-op today in a brand new Sasquatch sweatshirt he was gifted at his dad’s house?

It’s like I’m being followed. In the best, most exciting way. 

So what comes next? 

Well we’re not going to try and get proof, if that’s what you’re hoping for. Turns out they really don’t appreciate being captured in photos or on video. And we intend to respect that. 

We do plan on offering gifts and friendship to these ancient beings. We will also consult the tribe who has lived on these lands since time immemorial to ask for their wisdom and advice.  

Whatever happens, I can’t wait to share about it, and I hope that this opens your mind and heart to the Spirit in all things.